# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1861_S252
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

252 Church and Contemporary Affairs.

and therefore left every preacher generally to his own fate. The poor man could not travel, and the rich seldom wanted to undertake journeys." — An open and commendable confession. Among other fellowships no one has told the people that it is a sin to support the preachers with money, and yet it is often left undone. What can be the reason for that?

Statement of a Penitent (?). In the Lutheran Kirchenbote there appears a portion of a letter from S., said to be a tried and tested Lutheran preacher in western Pennsylvania. In it he writes: I was a great polemicist, and I thought I was doing God a service by it; but I bitterly regret that I did not press more upon true Christianity. The Ohio and Missouri Synods have the same film before the eye of their spirit. They are forever quarreling, and neglect to preach repentance."

Dr. Aug. Ebrard, formerly consistorial councillor in Speyer, has at the last session of the Western Reformed Synod been elected by it as German professor at the seminary in Tiffin.

Religious Papers. Of late about a dozen English religious periodicals have ceased publication, while several others keep their life going only with the greatest difficulty. Among those that have ceased, seven alone are Baptist papers. So reports the Evangelist.

The Sabbath Baptists, who observe not Sunday but Saturday, seem to be dying out. Their Sunday-school paper ceased some time ago, and now their only remaining organ, the "Sabbath Recorder," announces that it will no longer appear weekly but monthly, and after the completion of the volume year will perhaps cease altogether. (Ev.)

The Roman Church in America. The well-known papist agitator Brownson says in his "Review" that the Roman Catholic Church in this country must decline and shrink into insignificance unless it gains a greater intellectual power. He says the Roman Catholics must humble the Protestants' pride in intelligence in this country by proving themselves superior to them. — Sad, when a church faces its unavoidable decline without having won any superiority in learning and culture. The holy apostles and the apostolic church did not judge so. 2 Cor. 10:4-5.

The Missionary Institute in Selinsgrove, Pa., held 31 students last year, of whom 8 were recently, upon completion of their studies, admitted to the ministry by the Central Synod of Pennsylvania.

The Philadelphia Conference of the Lutheran Synod of East Pennsylvania, the Lebanon Conference of the same Synod, and the Pittsburgh Lutheran Synod have recently, in their sessions, passed resolutions for the continuation of the civil war.

II. Abroad.

On the Sealing. As is well known, J. A. Steinmetz, the late Lutheran abbot of Kloster Bergen, wrote a little tract, "On the Sealing of the Believers with the Holy Spirit." It has recently appeared in Neu-Ruppin with Bergemann. In a review of this booklet by Dr. K. K. Münkel, which appears in the March issue of Kliefoth's theological journal, the reviewer expresses himself, among other things, as follows: "According to Steinmetz, the sealing is thus an overflowing assurance of feeling regarding the forgiveness of sins. It can occur suddenly and all at once, or it can arise gradually, ascending out of weak beginnings. It comes about by means of the Word of God and the sacraments; the Holy Spirit can also grant it directly in answer to a person's persistent prayer. Such a sealing is, so to speak, the crown of the spiritual life, for which all believers must strive with all earnestness, in order to come from weakness to strength and to ascend to the highest point of Christianity attainable in this life. If that is so, then Steinmetz had reason to make himself the evangelist of the sealing, and to work toward it among the Pietists of his day.